Donald Trump’s loss-making social media company has become a magnet for fast-moving day traders, competing with Elon Musk’s Tesla and chipmaker Nvidia for their attention as politics looms larger on the agenda of individual investors.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, is among the three most traded stocks on the Interactive Broker platform over the past two weeks, alongside the two much larger companies.

The company — which takes its symbol DJT from the president-elect’s initials — remains a minnow despite the trading frenzy, even though its $6 billion stock valuation eclipses the $2.6 million in revenue it reported so far. ‘now this year. The volatile stock has seen an average daily fluctuation of about 7 percent this year.

TeslaIn contrast, , Musk’s electric car maker, is worth around $1 trillion and Nvidia is valued at $3.6 trillion. Strategists said TMTG’s presence alongside these giants suggested similarities to the meme stock craze of 2021, when valuations of companies popular with active traders, including retailer Gamestop and movie theater chain AMC, have climbed well beyond their business fundamentals.

“Being on par with Nvidia and Tesla, but only a fraction of their size is a hallmark of meme stocks,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, an online platform with a broad base of active traders.

“When you see floating trading multiples, it’s no longer about investing, it’s about straight trading,” Sosnick added. “This is day trading – its aggressive and very active traders look for opportunities in a high volume and high volatility situation.”

On average, almost 90 million shares TMTG Transactions have traded daily so far this month, compared with fewer than 9 million per day in the six months from late March, when the company went public, to late September. Meanwhile, volume of the original meme stock, GameStop, has fallen by almost two-thirds since July.

High stock turnover can lead to dramatic price swings. TMTG’s recent volumes are equivalent to almost all stocks not owned by Trump or insiders. Tesla and Nvidia typically see between 1 percent and 3 percent of their trades on the float in a given day.

Online broker Robinhood said TMTG was often among its 10 most traded stocks this month, while figures from Vanda Research, an investment flow specialist, this week showed continued net inflows into the company in from small traders, although down from record levels before the election.

“Retail investors were trading DJT at the same time as election odds, and now that that’s over, (it’s) become a game of hot potato where they get in and out,” said Marco Iachini of Vanda.

Retail traders on Reddit’s trading forums have regularly compared DJT, as the stock is called, with GameStop, the physical video game store whose shares were popularized by retail investor Keith Gill, on his social media channels . nom de guerre Roaring kitten.

“I love DJT as a stock,” said Ash Jatla, a UK-based Reddit user who bought after the stock started rallying in September and doubled his money. But he distinguished between business bets like DJT and investments, a category in which he places Tesla.

“It’s a different thing. I invested in Tesla because even if Trump wins or loses, there is factual information that supports Tesla – the company is good, it is very suitable for investing in the long term,” he added.

Since the election, TMTG shares have also fallen 17 percent – ​​a stark contrast to other so-called Trump deals that have profited well from Trump’s triumph, including Tesla, Bitcoin and the U.S. stock market as a whole . All three rose, with Bitcoin hitting a record and Tesla up 28 percent.

TMTG’s collapse wiped $1.3 billion from the company’s value and $670 million from Trump’s personal fortune. His stocks account for more than half of the president-elect’s $5.7 billion wealth, according to Bloomberg calculations, with the rest made up of real estate, cash and golf courses.

However, Tesla’s rally, spurred by founder Elon Musk’s proximity to Trump, has made the auto entrepreneur more than $28 billion richer.

Trump owns 53 percent of TMTG’s stock, according to filings. Beyond its stake, the company touted its largely retail ownership as a sign of support for its goals.

Last Friday, the president-elect used Truth Social to denounce what he called “false, untrue, and likely illegal rumors” that he might sell TMTG stock — something he said he had no intention of doing. TO DO.

Even with the increased focus on the election, Truth Social remains tiny in terms of reach, averaging 646,000 daily visits to its website this month, according to Similarweb, compared to 155 million per day for Musk’s X platform .

“I can’t imagine any real stock analyst would bother to look at this now, because it’s purely a trading vehicle,” said Matthew Tuttle, a portfolio manager who manages funds Thematic exchange-traded. “From a traditional perspective, it’s probably worthless.”

TMTG’s volatility has been so extreme that it led Tuttle to delay its plan, with ETF provider Rex Shares, to launch a leveraged fund seeking to provide twice the daily return or loss of TMTG.

Leveraged ETFs are a favorite of short-term day traders looking to maximize their returns. Tuttle still plans to launch the fund when stocks calm down.

Bets that TMTG shares would decline remained roughly steady, with 17 million shares sold short, that is, used in trades that stand to profit from a decline in the stock price . Betting represents almost 8 percent of the company’s shares.

Finding shares to borrow for short trades has been made more difficult by the small number of large shareholders, who are more likely to lend their holdings.

“It is long positions, not short sellers, that drive this market. The ability to borrow stocks is very limited,” said Matthew Unterman, managing director at financial data specialist S3 Partners. “There is a possibility of a short squeeze if the price rises, but so far the shorts are holding up.”